The U.S. May Lose its SOF

The current commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, known as SOCOM, General Raymond A. Thomas, addressing the Senate Committee on Armed Services said that Special Operations Forces (SOF) are not able to maintain the current intensity of operations. He stated the servicemen are psychologically exhausted, which is reflected, among other things, in a large percentage of suicides.

The general stressed that 8,000 U.S. Special Forces fighters are now participating in special operations in more than 80 countries around the world. At the same time, 55.3% of servicemen are in the Middle East, 17.3% in Africa and 12.7% in Europe. About 500 commandos are in Syria. Such active involvement of Special Forces has a negative impact on the stress-resistance of the units.

General R. Thomas expressed concerns about the number of suicides among military personnel. At the same time, he did not cite specific data, deciding not to go into the ‘terrible statistics’.

In this situation, attention is drawn to the information of several media, according to which the peak of suicides among servicemen of special units of the United States took place in 2012. Then, an agreement on strategic partnership in the military sphere was concluded between the United States and Afghanistan, and an active phase of confrontation in Syria began. According to Reuters, more than 350 cases of suicide were officially registered then. In 2014 – the beginning of the military intervention of the international coalition in Syria and Iraq – 275 servicemen committed suicide. In 2016, more than 400 cases were recorded.

Moreover, the head of the Special Forces expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that recently Special Forces have been increasingly used as universal means to solve any problems. He believes that U.S. SOF are currently forced to solve tasks that go beyond their usual functions.

According to the American general, the SOCOM experiences difficulties with the staffing, which are caused by the wide geography of troop’s deployment, as well as the long terms of their missions. As an example, Thomas pointed out the operation in Afghanistan, which, according to plan, was to end as early as 2014.

The general stressed that in recent years, the SOCOM command has doubled and even tripled its efforts to provide psychological assistance. With this purpose, two years ago, a contract was signed with the American Association of Suicidology to develop a program to prevent suicides and identify early signs of possible tragedies.
These tragedies are unfortunately not surprising, after almost 16 years of uninterrupted wars. As early as 2015, the former commander of the Special Forces, General Joseph Votel, as well as Adm. William McRaven in 2014, warned of the excessive pressure on them. Now the soldiers of the U.S. SOF negatively speak about the rules of combat, their small number and high mortality in Iraq and Syria.

Special Forces were eagerly waiting for the inauguration of Donald Trump. In December 2016, Trump, speaking in North Carolina, said that the U.S. will concentrate on combating terrorism and defeating the IS, and not at overthrowing governments. It seems that these plans will not come true, as at such a pace, the United States may soon disable its most combat-ready forces.

Read about the real situation in U.S. SOCOM and try to analyze the great delusion at the stenographic transcript of the meeting between General Raymond A. Thomas and the Senate Committee on Armed Services that is available here.

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Posted by GPD
on May 25, 2017,
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Filed under Military.
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10 Responses to "The U.S. May Lose its SOF"

largraf June 23, 2017 at 1:54 am

Well, I guess that’s one good gauge if you’re doing something against your very nature as a human being……….allot of your people would rather commit suicide than continue to obey your orders.

US-First May 25, 2017 at 6:09 pm

The Pentagon can divvy out enough to the jackal security firms – and money grubbing politicians like McCain, to cream off a fortune while $3-a-day Indonesian or Mozambique peasants ready to pick up a rifle will be deployed to continue the fight and rule the world for Israel. How ironic that so many gave their lives, freedom, health in wars abroad only to return to the United States where they are dubbed ‘enemies of the state’.

And the VA may be reduced to seeking money from a multi-million dollar Dept. of Agriculture political pork barrel under the John McCain ‘White Feather’ project – “to turn a transgender gander into a goose” which in time will provide softer down pillows for all US ‘moderate rebels’ for a more salubrious night’s sleep.
And the Vet sang, absolutely in tune, under a dank gibbous moon –

“Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the (twenty)-fifth day of may in the drizzlin’ rain.
Bob Dylan – “Isis”

Trakkath May 25, 2017 at 2:55 pm

Wasn´t army originally planed as a Home Defender ? Now they are abused as a mercenary army for merchants and thugs to plunder the whole world espec for Israhell and Rothschild banksters not even noticing the change as slave army

Eduardo May 25, 2017 at 4:15 pm

Abused through what Trakkath? Patriotism?
SOF or mercenaries on patriotic undercover missions equals terrorism – not heroism.
The spirit of SOF was lost/sold a long time ago along with democracy and truth.

The dilemma is that if SOF are not doing what they are doing, the mercs will be brought in. The private “security teams” are licking their chops at this tidbit. The proper mitigation is to decrease work load and increase Leave time to 6 months every 2 years for combat soldiers. We can’t operate beyond capability and it is very unfair to the people. They have to start saying NO. Greed and reckless over deployment is killing some of our best.

RichardD May 25, 2017 at 8:21 am

Psychiatric drug use in the special ops community is probably higher than in the rest of military, where it’s already twice the national average in a nation with a higher usage than most others. These drugs are dangerous and are found in most mass shootings and are a strong contributing factor to suicide.

JohnZ May 25, 2017 at 7:17 am

They deserve better? These people chose to enlist in a military that is nothing more than a hired thug for israel. The U.S. military has been murdering innocent men, women and children for more than 150 years, why should they stop now?
So now American soldiers can no longer cope with what they are involved in. Who is to blame for this situation? Certainly the zionist neo-cons but so is the MIC, Wall St. and just as importantly, the American people who sit on their soft fat butts and say nothing allowing this to continue year after year all the while their children return home in a flag draped coffin. The words, ‘thank you for your service” ring hollow and carry nothing but lies and ignorance.
This will not stop until Americans finally get off their fat buttocks and actually take to the streets. I don’t foresee this happening. Americans have become too fat, too lazy and too brainwashed to do anything but sit in front of the big flat screen watching reality TV and sports.
I no longer have any sympathy for those killed over seas. They had no business being there and should never have enlisted in the U.S. death machine.

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